How Habitat For Humanity Makes Homeownership Possible In Battle Creek

This time, the BC CIty Connection Housing podcast visits with Executive Director Mike King from Habitat for Humanity in Calhoun County to break down how the program turns renters into homeowners through affordable payments, volunteer labor, and strong local partnerships. 

Darcy Schmidt from the City of Battle Creek weighs in about why homeownership matters for equity and how the city helps remove barriers so more homes can be built.

Episode Resources
City of Battle Creek Housing Strategy
Calhoun County Habitat for Humanity

Watch the video of this discussion here or see the episodes on Access Vision in Battle Creek Tuesdays at 6:30 PM on channel 17/917.

BC CIty Connection Podcast is produced by Livemic Communications.

Transcript

Welcome And Housing Focus

Richard Piet 0:04

Hi, Richard Weiss. BC City Connection is the podcast from the city of Battle Creek. That's us. And some of our episodes are focused especially on housing. This is one of those as we talk with Habitat for Humanity. Mike King is with us today, who oversees operations for Habitat for Humanity in Battle Creek. And Darcy Schmidt's back with us too from the city of Battle Creek. Welcome to you both. Good morning. Mike, we know, and you probably get this a fair amount, right? The idea that Habitat for Humanity is pretty well known. The name is well known. I think to some extent the concept is well known. President Carter gave it a shot in the arm by having been a volunteer, uh, and that was well publicized. So that probably helps people understand. But tell us anyway, what do you tell people when they say, what does Habitat for Humanity do?

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Well, uh, we build housing for people who normally couldn't afford housing. And we also build wheelchair ramps uh for people that normally couldn't afford a wheelchair ramp. So yeah, we we build our houses at almost half the cost of what um a regular contractor would would uh build a house for. And uh the way we can do that is by utilizing volunteers. Uh we have volunteer groups that come out from various businesses, various uh service groups throughout throughout the area. Um sometimes we even have groups come from as far away as uh New England and the Chicago area. So my um so it's it's interesting. But what we do then is we sell our houses at what a family can afford. So we are we are willing to work with people who normally can't buy a home through a regular mortgage through a bank or a credit union. So what we do is we we make it so that they they utilize 30% of their income, and that is considered to be affordable. If if a person uses 30% of their gross income on housing, that is considered affordable. So we have families take out a loan at 30% of their income or just under 30%, and then the the rest of the amount that's needed to pay for the home, Habitat takes out a second mortgage, or a second mortgage is developed through Habitat here at the office, and uh that portion of the mortgage is not collected until there's a transfer of the property. So it could be 50 years from the date uh of the sale.

Richard Piet 2:53

This is an incredible setup and one for which people must be eligible. How do you determine eligibility?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

So at this point, eligibility is for people that are in the 35 to 80 percent range of the area median income. To the average person, that may not mean a lot to somebody, but but basically that's considered the low income bracket of this area. Of course, in in maybe in California, the area median income would be, you know, 50% of the area meeting income might be$100,000. Well, here it's generally it's between$25,000 and$60,000 for income. And it's based on it's based on what the average is in this area.

Richard Piet 3:42

So this eligibility thing and the notion of creating an option for folks to be homeowners who might not otherwise qualify in traditional ways. Darcy, this is this is intriguing and an important part of the possibilities for residents in Battle Creek, right?

Darcy Schmitt 4:04

Absolutely. We we really want to have more people able to own homes so they can build equity in their homes and wealth. It is much better for them than renting, and the money goes away. And as you know, renting can oftentimes be very expensive and definitely they wouldn't likely be in a situation where they would have affordable housing. This is just one opportunity that is amazing to have here in the city to help someone own a home.

Cutting Costs With Volunteers

Richard Piet 4:37

Yeah. So, Mike, talk about uh how you do it because uh we hear right in the news pretty often about the affordability factor and how that's become more difficult. You're talking about the ability to build a home at a fraction of the cost. How do you do that?

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Well, you know, we uh utilize volunteers. That's that we figure we figure for every home that we build, there's around$70,000 of donated volunteer hours into those homes. So we have this group of regular volunteers that work basically Tuesdays, Thursdays, and sometimes Saturdays. And they're just phenomenal people. And by the way, um we continue to look for more people to uh to join us on our regular volunteer crew. Just we'll put that plug in there. Uh, but so we have those regular volunteers. We also have uh groups that come out, like I mentioned earlier, uh, groups that come out and help and volunteer for a day or or or two days or so. Uh, but then we also get some donated items. Uh we recently we had some land donated in the northwest portion of Battle Creek. We get a kitchen that is built by the prison system in Michigan. And um, through a grant that they acquired, they're training prisoners to build kitchens for us. And these are just phenomenal kitchens. These are probably they would probably run in the$30,000 range for the cabinets and also the countertops. And then we get some other um items donated. Um, U.S. Lumber is a great partner with us to give us um lumber at a discounted rate. Knopf insulation gives us insulation for our attics so that we can actually we can blow our attics full of insulation at about an R60, which is over the code for this area. And so we because we figure too that if we save our families money every month in their heating bills, it's just going to be a benefit to them. So so we try to to to over-insulate, and I believe it's to a benefit of our families.

Richard Piet 6:43

Yeah, this is uh interesting. I want to linger on the volunteer thing for just a second. So there are folks who commit to you and say, look, I'll I'll show up for two or three days a week and help you build these houses. And do they have to have some kind of experience doing this?

SPEAKER_01 7:03

They do not. They do not. In fact, sometimes we actually enjoy teaching people it actually gives us great pleasure to teach people a new skill and they go home and they're like, you know what, I learned to do this today. And and sometimes it actually is to our benefit if people come with no skills and we can train them the way that we actually like things to be built. But at the same time, to have skilled people is actually quite a benefit at the same time. But these are these are phenomenal people. They they um are regular volunteers, they care about people, they they build relationships with the people who are buying the homes because the the families that are that are purchasing the habitat homes, um, they're required to work on the job site for a certain amount of hours. And so it it ends up building relationships, which are just sometimes they're lifelong relationships. And it's uh it's really a beautiful thing to see. But uh yeah, the the uh we believe now this is undocumented, uh, undocumented belief here, but we believe that our volunteers live longer because they have a purpose, they are getting physical exercise, they are they are having community relationships, building strong relationships, and so um so that's just an undocumented belief that our our our volunteers live longer and they live fuller and happier lives. There you go.

Richard Piet 8:30

Community engagement. It's happening.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Yeah, that's right. That's right.

Richard Piet 8:34

You remind me of an old boss of mine who used to like to say, hire for attitude, train for skills.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

That's that sounds good.

Richard Piet 8:43

Yeah, yeah, right. They they would welcome someone who had the right spirit and attitude and hunger for the position and say, you know, we we can teach them this. Uh we want the a certain person who's ready to do it, and and we can work with that. And this is kind of like what you're saying. You've got a clean slate, you can teach somebody how to uh I'm simplifying it, swing a hammer or something. But uh, and by the way, I would probably need that training, but you uh you can really m set a uh a path for them, and they end up being uh someone that's connected to this, and you're with them for a long haul.

Duplexes And Generational Wealth Questions

SPEAKER_01 9:25

You know, some of our volunteers are in their 30 years of volunteering, uh over 30 years. We have we have um, I believe it's uh three or four that are over 30 years in volunteering on a habitat job site. Um just phenomenal. You know, it's it's true. If you if if people just they just care about people, care about meeting needs in their neighborhood, in the city here or in the county. We work all throughout the county, really. But you you know, if people care, they'll they'll they'll learn the skills. It's like you're saying, they'll learn the skills. And we're not we're not worried about that. But it's just a great time to work together, really, to to meet needs and to to better somebody's life, really.

Richard Piet 10:06

There's been uh certainly a a footprint that you have employed, I'll say, as a typical habitat home, but that's changing, isn't it? There's there's some uh consideration of other kinds of structures like duplexes and townhouses and and uh different kinds of designs. Is that true?

SPEAKER_01 10:26

That's very true, Richard. That's very true. Um we are in the process, it's a slow process. Uh we're looking at the possibility of duplexes or quads, um, triplexes. We're not quite sure where to go with it, uh, but we're we're looking into it. One of the things that that we really want to meet a need is that, you know, we're trying to we're trying to uh help people with their generational wealth. You know, the many people know about redlining from years ago, and uh we see ourselves as being the the the antidote to that in a certain way, where families that buy a home from habitat, they're building their they're building the wealth for generations uh through that habitat home. And one of my one thing I think about, and I I we'll have to do more research, is is a is a quad, is the is the generational value of that quad, is it worth as much as a single family home like what we're building now? So so we've we've really been building single family homes, and we have we have plans for at least 10 more in the next couple years, and because we have land for for uh for basically for 10 more, or we're in the process of getting land for 10 more homes. And so it looks like they'll be single family homes. But you know, but what's the difference? That the question we have to answer is what's the difference between a single family home and the the generational wealth that's created with a single family home compared to a a quad or a duplex? Is it the same? If it's the same, well, you know, it there could be some some savings in building duplexes and building multifamily homes. There could be some savings in that we could reduce our costs even more, but we just want to make sure that the that the value of those homes through the generations would be the same.

Richard Piet 12:24

Yeah, I see your point. And for many folks, right, the real estate they buy, that's their long-term investment. And so you want to make sure that this opportunity isn't less so just because the design is different.

How The City Helps Habitat Build

SPEAKER_01 12:39

That's exactly right. Yep.

Richard Piet 12:40

Yeah. Darcy, when you listen to all this and and you're living the goals of trying to make housing more available, affordable, whatever the perspective is, all the above in Battle Creek, and you listen to what Habitat's doing, if they see challenges somehow, I assume the city is ready to listen to what those challenges are because you want them to be successful too.

Land Donations And Site Challenges

Darcy Schmitt 13:08

Yes, uh agreeable. I mean, that's uh we have so many partners out there that are working hard to come up with ideas where we can have more generational wealth built with uh members of the community. And this is one huge piece to the puzzle. And anything the city can do to help. And I think getting the word out is huge. Um, it's only one small thing that we can do. But yeah, I think the city has through the community development department worked with Habitat for Humanity more than once. And definitely the planning and zoning, we, you know, we are here to help advise or do whatever we can to help um with the process, whether it's, you know, having properties rezoned to what works for uh the development of the property or helping to look into um some property that might be donated to Habitat for Humanity to help uh Mike understand uh how that can be accessed, what the obstacles are with utilities and things like that. So I think I think in any way we can, um, this is helping our community and we're there for them.

Richard Piet 14:27

Mike, you talked about having been granted property on which you could build a habitat home. I mean, how does that typically happen? People just call you up and say, hey, I got some land for you. It's probably not that simple, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:41

You know, that's how it won't. That's that's how it went here recently. We we actually are very appreciative. A uh there was a a person that passed away and um they uh I don't know if they had it in their will that habitat would get some property or quite how it came about, but we were just sent a letter and and we were told that that we could uh we could receive five building lots and um oh my and they're right beside each other and they're uh and in my eyes they're beautiful, a beautiful place to build in the northwest corner there of Urbendale. So that's how it happened. So you know, you never know. I mean there's um it's uh it's amazing the the support that that habitat has from the community. It's just it's a really a beautiful thing. Certainly, uh this this helps us so much because it it kind of gives us a path forward for for a year or two, a couple years here in the future, just to know where we'll be heading, and we can do some work at at um gathering some funds for building houses there. So it's uh it's just a beautiful thing.

Richard Piet 15:43

Well, that example is especially terrific, isn't it? It was a obviously an expansive piece of land, uh, and you can uh build multiple homes there. So this person knew what they were up to when they came up with this idea. Uh I imagine sometimes you get land donated, perhaps, that maybe is uh good for a single uh building. Is that true? And do sometimes you get land that already has a structure on it and you have to decide how to handle that? I mean, this gets a little more complicated sometimes, doesn't it?

How To Apply And What To Expect

SPEAKER_01 16:16

This yeah, you you you know you hit it right on the head there. There there are we sometimes get offers of parcels of land or buildings that that just don't fit what we can work with. And so it you know, we hate to decline an offer, um, but sometimes we have to do that. We're better off when we can build in a in a location where we can build multiple homes at one time in a certain location. So so a single lot, although you know it it can happen where we can build a single home at one spot, we do prefer to build multiple homes um at a at a given location. We it just helps with logistics, moving equipment around, tools around. We can have multiple groups of volunteers working, one at one home and one at the home beside that home. And and so we do we do prefer you know multiple sites at one area, but uh we're open to to whatever comes our way.

Richard Piet 17:12

Yeah, you'll consider it. Someone's listening to this, Mike, and they're saying, gee, I wonder I think I qualify for that.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

What should they do? Well, the bl the best place to to uh apply for a habitat home is to go to our website, habitatbc.org. And there's a tab that speaks of home ownership, homeownership application. Uh there's a short video that explains the how to apply there. And if they have any trouble, they can just call the uh the habitat number. Uh it's listed there on the website, or they can do a Google search, Habitat Battle Creek, and uh give us a call. And we'll certainly have we have a gentleman who walks people through the home application process. And we want to make sure that that people get a fair shot. It's uh to us, it's the most amazing deal that that a person could want to to have help in in buying a habitat home. We walk people through the the whole process. Now granted, they will have to put some sweat in, and also, you know, they'll have to do their part in in um making sure that they keep walking through the process, keep keep uh responding to loan officers, um, that kind of thing. Um so it's it can be difficult. There can be a lot of questions, a lot of fears. Um, but that's why we we try to hook uh every person up with a with a family partner that will walk them through the process that can be there at a moment's notice to answer a phone call if they have a question. I believe in in the habitat process. We have we have um multiple families that are applying for homes, and we're we're uh at the point where we're not able to keep up quite as much as we had been. So we're uh you know, we're hoping that we could, you know, if we could build eight homes a year, that would be amazing. Uh right now we're averaging around four homes per year. And um, so uh we are getting multiple applications at this time. But if a person is interested in the program, they really should apply and get themselves on a at least on the list to uh, you know, to be available in a year or two for a habitat home.

Richard Piet 19:22

Yeah, you anticipated my question. Do you get overwhelmed with with applications? Maybe not overwhelmed, but it sounds like there's interest, and that interest builds, which is uh terrific. Do you help folks understand uh what it's like, what the responsibilities are as they the they become homeowners, now the house is built, they're moved in, now they have to be maintaining that building. Do you talk to them about that?

SPEAKER_01 19:50

We do. We have a maintenance manual, and it talks about replacing the furnace filters, keeping things cleaned, um unhooking your hose from the faucet in the fall so it doesn't freeze. Um, so we do go through that. We we have a manual we go through. We we have a um it's about a a checkup with them after about 30 days that they're in the home. Like um one of the big things is well, my res my receptacles all stopped working. Like what happened? Well, there's a GFI that somehow got tripped and it and it made a certain number of of receptacles not work. And so we make sure that that we go over that point with them. Like it's usually just the push of a button. Maybe it could be the um a breaker in the breaker box that just tripped, and so they just have to flip it. And then we also do a uh a six a six-month checkup and just to make sure that things are going well in the home. Do they have any questions? And we also give a year warranty so that if anything breaks or or if there's a normal wear and tear of something that maybe wasn't put together quite right, or we we we give a year and after a year we go back in and we we see if they have any checklist of of items that are that are needing a little bit of repair, a little bit of work. And um, and then after a year, they're pretty much on their own, but they we're always available to them. We do we do like follow-up newsletters too to our homeowner families and just reminders like, hey, this is this is the time of year for filters, this is the time of year to clean your your gutters, um that kind of thing. So we we do our we do our best and we're we're growing in that area too, to uh to make sure that people know what's expected and what what can go wrong, uh, but we're also there at a moment's notice, um, if there is something major. And you know, homeownership it can be scary, you know, when if the furnace all of a sudden isn't coming on, like like um like I believe you realized and Richard Christmas time that uh you know it can happen and and Sometimes there's a simple fix and most times there is on a new home. Um, so we just we try to be available to uh to help walk through that whole process.

Richard Piet 22:11

Darcy, do you end up uh getting, I say you, I mean the community development department, do you meet people who say, I want to be a homeowner, but I don't, I don't think I can swing it? And do you say to them, have you talked to Habitat? I mean, do you you end up being a conduit, don't you?

Darcy Schmitt 22:27

Well, not necessarily. I'm actually in the planning and zoning department, but I work closely with my colleague Helen Gazot, and she, I'm sure she does on a regular basis because they have other programs where um through the community development department that are working to keep people in their homes. So definitely, and we work closely with other partners that we can hook them up with uh to get them toward the right people. But we definitely um, like I said, want to make sure that we can get this information out for Habitat for Humanity and make sure people know what their options are and um working more towards getting people hooked up with the right people.

How To Volunteer And Wrap

Richard Piet 23:12

And I imagine you do, and that's a big part of this process. Before we go, Mike, talk about the volunteers to whom we referred a moment ago. If they want someone listening, wants to be a volunteer. They come with maybe no skills or maybe some skills, uh, doesn't matter. What do they do if they want to be a part of this?

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Well, they could also go to our website, habitatbc.org, and they can click on a link that says uh I want to volunteer, and um, they could fill out the information there and we would get that at the office, or they could call 269-966-2502 and just let us know that they're interested. And we would just love them and uh appreciate that they're willing to give their time and and to benefit other people, and we would just have open arms to them. So thank you.

Richard Piet 24:06

Maybe live longer.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

And yeah, there you go. The benefits are are just amazing. They're just amazing benefits. And there are donuts every once in a while, too. Just just so we keep that in mind. I guess it can't be everyone. That helps them live longer too. A good a good sweet treat once in a while.

Richard Piet 24:24

All right. Well, that's the last thing that uh we'll leave you with. Uh if that helps push you over the edge and you're now a volunteer, great. Mike King, Habitat for Humanity, Battle Creek. Thank you. And Darcy Schmidt, City of Battle Creek. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Thank you, Richard.